Alistair Malcolm Peabody
Alistair "Al" Malcolm Peabody Character Sheet Age: 75 Background: Covert Ops Dragon: Kalos Stats: Fire 3 Water 4 Earth 5 Air 4 Group mind - 1 Moves for physical action - 3 Moves for physical reaction - 4 Karmic Range - 28 Initiative dice - 7 Health - 9 Bonus physical skills - 7 Bonus mental skills - 9 Wealth -'' 4 '''Skills:' Interaction - 4 Stealth - 4 Trickery - 4 Mele: ranged - 2 Senses - 2 Knowledge: Modern Cultures 2 Knowledge: Geography 1 Tech (computers) 2 Will 1 Research: 3 Athletics 2 Balance 1 Quickness 2 Stamina 2 Edges: Network ''- contacts and informants from M16 days ''Windfall -''family house, retirement IRA and pension ''Durable - ''2 rerolls on stamina / will endurance outside of combat '''Dragon:' Sire - Ouroboros Fighting Style: Eastern Small Style Underhanded Description: A little old man, unassuming in appearance. He has little hair remaining , and what does is silvery gray. He has piercing blue eyes that an astute observer may note are still sharp. He wears bifocal glasses, with a video display / camera function (think Google Glass). He is a bit sensitive about his height of 5'2" (he swears he was 5'6" at least in his youth!) and wears lifts and a quite tall fedora. His sword cane has a carved dragon motif. Family: Wife: Martha (deceased) Children: Alfie, Nate, Cookie Grandchildren: Arthur, Annie, Ben, Lilly, Chester Great-Grandchildren: Teddy, Apple, Pierce Important possessions: Al has a two story, five bedroom house that has been in his family for several generations. It is, by happenstance, now in a gentrified hipster neighborhood that several of his grandchildren would dearly love to live in. Al resists their attempts to move themselves in and move him out to a retirement home. He owns a motor scooter with which he gets around when not taking the Tube. He has a collection of tools leftover from his MI6 days. He is surprisingly tech savvy, and has a very up to date phone, laptop, and tablet. He has a dragon headed cane, which is a sword cane. He has a diamond made from Martha's ashes that he wears on a pendant around his neck. Dog: Peaches, a spoiled pappilon that was his wife's. History: On the 23rd April 1942, in the midst of the Baedeker Blitz, in a little air raid shelter in Exeter, Alistair Malcolm Peabody was born. He came screaming into the world with bombs bursting overhead. His young mother Alice, newly wed, worried that her husband Malcolm might not live to see his son. But the Peabody's were a lucky family, and Mal survived the war. He and Alice had two more sons and a daughter, though one son did not survive to adulthood. Alistair grew up eldest of the brood, listening to his father's war stories and plotting his own heroic seiges with his siblings in the back garden. However, as they all got older, his siblings came to tower above him. Poor nutrition with rationing during the war, his grandmother clicked, and called him her delicate little boy. This made Al very annoyed, and he sought to excel in ways that didn't require height- academically , and physically at running Track. When Al was a young teen, the family moved from Exeter to London to move in with Grandmother Peabody, who needed help taking care of her ancestral dwelling. In London, Al experienced a whole new world and got into new music, made new friends. He joined the Teddy Boys, digging Edwardian clothing out of his family attic. His father did NOT approve. When his grandmother died shortly after Al graduated school, he took his inheritance and went to study abroad at Scarborough college in Ontario, Canada. Time apart was sure to ease some of the tension between he and his father, and Al was eager to see more of the world. He majored in world history, and became casually politically active, joining in a few campus demonstrations without any strong conviction behind it, more a Curiosity to have the experience of protesting. Likewise, he was drawn to a scientific study at the research department of his college. This turned out to be run by the CIA in their MKUltra experiment program. When young Alistair was given LSD, he had visions of dragons and a fantastic age of myth. Furthermore, he felt like he WAS a dragon - like he could fly, do magic, access the wisdom of ages. His brainwaves and readings were off the chart - and the CIA wanted to recruit him for their remote viewing program. MI6 got wind of this, and arranged for Alistair to be deported from Canada - so that they might have him back in England where they could recruit him themselves. Al found himself, at 21, going from ordinary college student to spy in training. His trainers were somewhat disappointed to discover, however, that Al had zero talent for remote viewing. Every time he was in an altered state of consciousness, he would have similar visions of dragons and mythology that were dismissed as drug induced fantasy. However, they had invested time and money in his training and therefore they switched focus to making him a field operative. The unassuming young man, once his questionable fashion choices were corrected, was able to blend in to a crowd and virtually disappear. He traveled extensively abroad during his career, serving at various times in the Soviet Union at the British Embassy; in the Middle East gathering intel while posing as a antiquities importer; in East Germany as a diplomatic courier; and several domestic postings within the UK itself. It was during a domestic posting that he met a fascinating codebreaker named Martha Kingsbridge, who wouldn't at first give him the time of day. She had work to do, and brash young men were not part of the agenda. However, the two found themselves drawn together, as if the pull of fate were stronger than them both. They were married a scant year later, and were extremely close and loyal throughout their marriage. Even when Al was away on missions, they wrote to each other constantly. They had three children together, and lived in the Peabody family estate (Al's parents having retired back to Exeter). Al was the consummate career and family man; his kids grew up going to private schools. Martha continued her work part-time when the children were young, then returned to a full time position when they were teens. They were a happy family. Al, however, thought his missions were not quite as exciting as they could have been. He found himself remembering his father's war stories, and wanting to give his children a similar exciting parent-- started embellishing liberally. His kids likely knew that he was no James Bond, but they enjoyed the thought that maybe- just maybe - their father was a real hero. He also made sure that they knew of the importance of Martha's work, though she was much more humble about her contributions to the safety of the nation. Time marched on, as time does. Al and Martha's children grew up and got careers and families of their own. The Cold War ended, and Al had to adapt with the times. He'd always had some nifty gadgets from the tech department- but now he found himself having to take classes to learn computers. Martha helped him adjust as well - her own job had, of course, been at the cutting edge , using what machinery and software was being developed as soon as it came available. Al grumbled and groused, but secretly he enjoyed this budding world of global connection. The internet was an interesting new world to explore. Unfortunately, human bodies are frail, and Martha found herself feeling weak and tired. She took some time off from work - very unlike her- and went to see the doctor. Tests were run, and she was found to have cancer. Ever a fighter, she beat it the first time - much to her family's relief. She even went back to work for a time, in spite of Al's worry that she might run herself ragged. But then it came back, more aggressive. The battle became a full time war. Ultimately, she died at home on hospice, with her whole loving family and her beloved little dog by her side. It was as good an ending as one could hope for, but Al felt groundless without his soulmate. He didn't know what to do other than to throw himself at work. And then that work was taken away from him - forced retirement. A party, a plaque in recognition of his service- then what? Al became bitter, grumpy. He didn't want to be one of those old men who played chess and fed pigeons in the park. He became active in his neighborhood watch. He started keeping notes of the comings and goings of suspicious individuals, of the meetings of a group at the corner store. His children and grandchildren are worried that he is going a bit dotty with his conspiracies, but he insists there is something going on in the city. Something big. And he's determined to find it.